The Jogging Jawa is a dead beginner at running looking to reclaim her ability to wear those tiny shorts with the white piping and side splits; and maybe just develop one of those fit, healthy lifestyles she keeps hearing about.
Starting from scratch in an elite fitness-blog-world full of expensive gear, and Personal Records she couldn't beat with a car.
I finished the 5k to 10k training pretty strong on February 19th and then just sort of... petered out. Life, the universe and everything (and by that I mean my Kindle) intervened, and so my mileage, endurance, and ability to fit into my wardrobe went kaput.
So what am I doing to fix this?
Well, in about an hour I'm heading out to do the first race of the NYS Parks Summer Run Series in Heckscher State Park (and potentially intermittent thunderstorms) with Gigi of Running On Candy. That will be a five mile run and the first of eight weekly runs of differing lengths across different regional state parks.
I'm really looking forward to this! (and not just because it's NOT at eight in the morning) so I'll get back to you on how it went soon.
I've also started using Jeff Galloway's half marathon trainer app on my iPhone in the hopes that having a more rigid training schedule will keep me on track. I think I just have to face the fact that I'm not working consistently without some sort of goal or guideline. I don't really have a problem with this, it really just means I have to focus a bit more on what goals I'm looking to achieve.
I suppose you can call it a comeback if you really want to.
Do you find that there specific are things you lean on to make it easier to get out there?
I'm getting ready to leave for my first run of my last week of 5k to 10k, and I was thinking about why I haven't been too psyched to get out for this run* (beside the horrible travel conditions) but I just figured out the holdup while I was changing into my workout gear.
This is "rest/recovery" week with the idea that the end of this week should be an actual 10k race so I have to do a fifteen minute run with five minute walk on each end for warmup/cooldown.
The effective upshot of that is that it literally took me longer to get dressed then it will to do my entire run today.
img src: isucceedbook.com
I think it took longer just to get my new sneakers de-tissued and laced on just right.
The bright side however is that I will be trying out my new sneakers so I'm pretty psyched about that.
*I was going to go yesterday but there was apparently an accident on the road immediately next to my gym so I couldn't go right after work... aaaaaand then I got a Kindle so the whole evening pretty much disappeared after that.
How do I stay sane when I'm not working out regularly?
Oh yeah, that's right, I don't.
I become a tightly wound ball of nerves and I physicalize every last bit of it; my back seizes, my joints stop working (so working out now leads to injury, catch 22!), my skin erupts and then sloughs off, my adrenaline spikes for little to no reason, I become depressive, and my immune system implodes on itself taking the majority of my favorite foods with it.
Hell on earth, or as I like to call it, the entirety of my twenties!
Don't get me wrong, there were good days too
This past week was a bit extra stressy for me for a number of reasons and on Friday I found myself somewhat melancholic and yearning to take a midnight drive to Montauk Point. Unfortunately however it's about a five hour round trip for me and I couldn't see eating through an entire tank of gas in the name of catharsis* (also at that point I wasn't sure the whole route was open as much of it runs along beach).
I had officially signed up for the gym earlier that day so now that I had noticed the inverse proportion between my mileage and my mood (*cough* not to mention the firmness of my tummy *cough*) I resolved that this was the week I was going to get back in the swing of things and try to make my runs the cathartic road experience I was clearly lacking.
Sanity: a mile at a time.
Saturday was a bit whirlwind and draining so I headed out Sunday afternoon resolved to get my kinetic therapy ON.
Sunday afternoon run: Steady run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks
4.03 miles (!!) at an average of 10:53 per mile - total run time of 43:54
Another distance first for me made all the better by the fact that I felt really good! I wasn't sure how much I wanted to push after a whole week off but even mile two was pleasant so I figured I might as well go for it. Pretty consistent splits (10:59, 10:55, 10:43, 10:54) and I didn't feel like I was swinging back and forth as wildly throughout. I think 11:00 is shaping up to be a pretty reasonable road covering pace for me for the moment.
The 43 degree temperature wasn't thrilling to be sure. My eyes watered for the first mile and I felt like I spent the rest of the night clearing out a layer of gunk my lungs apparently formed to protect themselves against the cold (I must find my balaclava!). Otherwise I was pretty comfortable but I do see why people get extra sleeve layers. I'm almost tempted to reroute so that my first mile loops back to my house so I can drop my vest off after I have worked up a bit of real body heat... then again maybe not, it's not even December yet, it's only getting colder for the next three months. *sigh*
I am mildly concerned that I could feel a slight ache in my right arch again during the middle of my run and afterward I felt it in both arches and in both knees (though all discomfort was gone within an hour). If this continues much longer I may hit up the running store and see if they have a suggestion.
As far as my brain? Road zen officially achieved.
This is usually in the form of my brain just plain shutting off somewhere around mile three, but I'll take it.
I felt better for the rest of the day and formulated a plan of action going forward, so I'm going to call that mission accomplished.
I purchased the Active.com 5k to 10k App and the Garmin Footpod today (that will arrive Thursday), and my plan is to hit the gym three nights a week through the winter to do 10K training, and hopefully get out for a long unstructured run on Sundays when the weather permits.
I'm not sure how the app works without GPS (and there is NO support for ANYTHING from Active) but they do offer the ability to disable GPS so I suppose it must work without.
If I follow fairly consistently that will take me through February/March and I can start thinking about whether I want to move the Half Marathon training plan up from its current start time of July.
*I've only driven to Montauk once (December 19, 2010) and it was (and is) the longest I've ever been behind the wheel.
After spending an evening cleaning the last of my stuff out of storage at my ex- boyfriends house I realized I couldn't just sit home among the box pile, so I hit the road for a drive. I just sort of randomly resolved to go to Montauk after about an hour of aimless driving.
I listened to Nine Inch Nails on shuffle the whole way, enjoyed a light snowfall, almost ran out of gas, nearly collided with about a million deer, and initiated the functional part of reclaiming my sanity in the wake of what had become a rather horrible couple of years (capped off by an exceptionally soul grinding couple of weeks).
I consider it the hard point that separates that time of my life from this one. It wasn't a cure all, but aside from the near wildlife collisions it stands out as one of the calmest and most centered points of my life, and that clarity carried me through.
I've been feeling a little more off every day for the last couple of weeks.
To be fair there has been a *bit* of stuff going on in the world around me, so at first I passed everything off as temporary reactions to the immediate environmental stresses.
By this past Thursday it became clear that regardless of what was going on my body had just plain settled into full on Bleah! mode; complete with allergies, tiredness, crappy eating, random adrenaline spikes, headaches, and a solid case of the HULK SMASHes.
Only then did it occur to me that I had switched from running three 5ks every week (with all the healthful eating and hydrating that entails) to a single 5k in two weeks, eating absolute junk, living in front of my computer (or my phone when the power was off), and drinking a glass or two of wine every couple of nights... and that maybe this had a little something to do with my general feelings of crappyness too.
I have apparently transitioned into the time of my life that living healthy actually feels better than doing whatever. Weird.
I was already determined to run this weekend because I had signed up for the run4nyc virtual 5k, but this mood shift made me all the more determined to get out and get moving again.
I don't get a lot of sleep on average during the week so sleeping in and chilling out on weekends is key to my sanity. I recently dug out all of my winter gear so for the first time this year I got to rock out my fave winter PJs while kicking around my apartment.
I have clearly cornered the market on everyday sexy. Hope I don't get any of you in trouble at work with the racy content!
I spent the late morning and early afternoon relaxing in my footies. It was starting to get late and if I wanted to get a run during full daylight I would have to GO.
And so it came time to remove my delicious warm microfleece Muppet pajamas to put a meager few layers of cold flimsy tech fabric between me and the universe. I readied to leave my wonderful boyfriend and snuggly cats behind; to venture out into the cold; to test and exhaust myself on messy dangerous litter strewn roads... and I didn't think twice about a single second of it.
I think it was sometime around when I finished painstakingly weaving and tucking my earphones around and through a carefully crafted bra strap/safety pin maze that I fully recognized the decision I had made, and what that meant to me about who I am now and what I'm about.
Running is just what I do now, I'm a runner. Hunh.
Sure I may be a painfully slow runner all things considered, and apparently I set myself up to suck wind big time by going a week with only one short walk for exercise, (who put all that invisible plastic wrap in my lungs anyway?) but if any of that sort of stuff was going to stop me it probably would have done so months ago, and being able to say that feels pretty darn awesome.
Incidentally: if you're looking for some sexy Muppet footie PJs of your own you can get them here.
My Saturday run: run4nyc virtual 5k - a 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks
3.10 miles at an average of 11:34 per mile - total time of 35:53
Positive splits all around! Not kidding, this one was hard.
So, what are my options for running at this point?
Like it or not road running has officially become a weekend activity. I don't typically get home from work until four thirty, and with daylight savings time it's pretty much dark at five now, so weeknight running is pretty much out until spring. The sun rises at about six forty am this time of year, which is less than a half hour before I already get up to be at work at eight. Given the amount of time it would take me to cool down and shower if I ran in the morning I would still be running in the dark then too (I do have to admit I'm immensely happy that's not a remotely viable option).
I have an extremely generous offer from Gigi of Running On Candy to use her treadmill since she lives very close (and is awesome), but transitioning my entire running workout routine to right in the middle of someone's home seems like it would get intrusive right quick and we Jawas are shy, retiring creatures. I love her for the offer but I think I'd be too mortified to actually make good on it. She does have cats which rival mine in awesomeness, (and she has a whole extra one) but by the same token I see treadmill + amazing cat time rapidly devolving to shenanigans.
I had already been looking into a Retro Fitness extremely close to me and I found out that they are running a cash special Thanksgiving weekend that makes the dues work out to ACTUALLY twenty dollars a month. I had already figured out a few things I could easily cut out of my budget to cover that and then my parents offered to kick in a sizable proportion of the membership as a holiday gift, so I'm pretty much decided.
I plan to do a guest pass one day in the intervening time to check it out (make sure they're not a front for trafficking endangered animals or anything like that) and if it seems worth it I'm going for it!
I deeply appreciate the respect for the needs of the city, and feel terribly for those who are missing out.
I can only hope that the various vendors and organizers involved have respect for the efforts of the runners who will lose out on their race and that every effort will be made to pave the way for their return (rather than just their dollars).
As a stubborn New Yorker I so desperately want to call out "The Show
Must Go On!"
As a proud New Yorker I want you to see the gritty, fast paced, art deco glories of my home.
As a fledgeling runner I want to bask in the excitement of the first NYC marathon that's really been on my radar.
But as a fellow human being looking at the devastation around me I really wonder if it's actively
irresponsible to shoulder another burden so soon. Especially one which
will directly pull so many necessary resources.
The New York City skyline darkened after millions lost power on Monday. Click image for link to original source
This image makes me want to cry a little bit. Ok, more than a little bit.
People keep talking about the money this will bring into the city... as if that somehow balances out all of the expected downsides. As wonderful as it is that
people want to help the situation with their money, we can't even get the
access to many of these resources with OUR money and that puts us in direct competition for our own resources.
That money would be an incredible boon in one week, or two, or a month from now, but all it is doing right now is buying resources AWAY from the people that need them.
We're not talking about a shortage of I♥NY shirts, FDNY baseball caps, dirty water dogs, and commemorative Lady Liberty statuettes.
Image via LouiseHB on flickr - Click image for link
People are already without shelter, transit, food, electricity, police protection, cleanup crews, and from what I'm hearing access to clean tap water is going away as well. It's BAD, and now with the VERY rapidly descending gas shortage it's only getting worse for many people.
Yet these are all of the same things that the marathon goers will need.
Is this fair to us? Patently not.
Is this fair to THEM? Nope, not fair there either. I assure you that their experience here will NOT be the one they signed up and paid good money for.
I Love this NY, but we've been together a long time and I've had a lifetime to embrace all of her aspects. But this is not the NY I want you to meet, much less fall in Love with. This is a scraped up distracted NY who would love to spend time with you but the insurance adjustor will be here any minute, and anyway she had to skip lunch to get here in time and coffee is a distant hazy memory so please bear with her a bit.
I count myself among the EXTREMELY lucky few who did not suffer direct property damage. My family is safe and I have a lot of support, but by the same token the situation is still pretty grim for the coming days and I wouldn't recommend it as a lifestyle personally. There is a lot at stake.
Would you run a marathon on a torn tendon?
Would you run a marathon on a torn city?
I do not blame anyone who is still psyched on the idea, but I do recommend having a look at the page below, there are some very compelling statements here. https://www.facebook.com/CancelThe2012NycMarathon
I'm not gonna lie, Sunday's run pretty much sucked.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I finished up happy and all, and my initial temptation was to use the smiling smiley on my Nike App, but it's easy to rate a run as good when the endorphins have already kicked in.
Nope, large swaths of it out and out sucked, and (now that it's over) I'm pretty darn glad for it.
It usually takes me a block or two to get into the rhythm of running but after that I can usually (thankfully) let my legs go on autopilot. When there is the usual lack of pain or fatigue in my legs I can focus on directing my energy toward pacing and getting more air into my lungs, so I can hopefully not puke or keel over into someone's prize azaleas. I did feel a touch less winded throughout than usual, for which I am
HIGHLY thankful because otherwise I felt a bit like a confused drunken bear.
It took two and a half miles for me to forget my legs enough to just run, oh and also there was a headwind.
Since when do I care about headwinds? Since Sunday, apparently.
My ankle pain seems to have finally calmed down, but only to be replaced by a sort of dull pain in the opposite knee (probably after effects of compensating for that ankle)*, some sub-threshold shin splint action, and some good old general muscle fatigue. It's nothing I'd call deal-breaking, but it certainly wasn't fun and I had to sternly talk myself out of taking more than one walk break.
I had a lot of trouble with pacing at first and found myself edging up on 10:00 more than once very early on. I think my body was just trying to get it all over with, potential for exhaustion blackouts be damned! Still, with much cajoling, and more then a few "suck it up buttercup" type platitudes I got through an entire 5k without pause. I even beat Wednesday's overall pace by four seconds per mile.
Once I forgot about my legs I actually felt good enough to end with a bit of a kick, but getting there took far too long for my liking. I spent that half a mile swinging between 7:30 and 10:00 and still ended up with positive splits up around the 12:00s, which I think says a thing or two about how bad the beginning of mile three was.
Why am I so cool about this sucking so much? Because it actually kinda sorta counted for something. Sunday was when I chose to do RunningInSanity's The Great Pumpkin Race. Times aren't being entered, there are no official winners or losers (though the last time she did this sort of thing there were a whole lot of randomly picked schwag winners, so that's something to look forward to) and yet... and yet...
I feel like I solidly earned my very first medal (virtual though it be) and I'm going to be rudely shoving this run in my own face making "nyah nyah" noises for a while to come. I really struggled with myself, and I won out against my doubts, and you can bet I'll be dragging out those bragging rights out over the parts of me that want to walk it or go home early in the future.
Pumpkins are already a huge thing for me and I couldn't ask for more welcome addition to their symbolism.
On a more technical note: I find it's taking me longer to regain my equilibrium after running and despite it being an afternoon run I don't feel like I really got my brain back until after dinner. I think my cool down stretching is actually suffering a bit as I often find myself just sort of holding my toes and staring off into the distance for long swaths of time.
After something like the fourth "give me a rare steak now or forfeit your left arm" meal planning discussion with The Boyfriend this week I'm starting to think I am missing out on some essential cow vitamin and I have to wonder if that has something to do with my sore muscles and extended post-run space cadet time.
Once I had fortified myself with some shrimp fondue and a petite sirloin (it was medicinal fondue, I needed nourishment, don't you judge) we hit a dollar store for cheesy decorations and a Trader Joe's for pumpkins and then spent the rest of the evening watching cheesy 80s horror (House II and Night of the Creeps, in case you were wondering) and eviscerating gourds.
I do carve a sexy pumpkin.
How do you kick your own butt?
Do you have any personal symbols that work into your running?
Have you ever found yourself drifting a bit too far into LaLa Land after a workout?
******
My Sunday run: a 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks.
Official running of RunningInSanity's The Great Pumpkin Race
3.1 miles at an average of 11:50 per mile - total time of 36:43 max pace of 6:49 (?!?)
******
Next up is another virtual run - The Cupcake Classic. It is "open" now and runs until Sunday (click on the image below for more detail - registration is still open!). I have not yet decided which day I will be running this but signs point to, uh, not Wednesday or Thursday?
Reply Hazy. Ask Again Later
******
*I had a physical today after writing most of the bits above and mentioned my knee pain, after a bit of manipulation he declared it tendonitis and basically said "rest it if you can, but as I'm realistic I'm going to say also hit it with anti-inflammatory meds as you must". I am quite curious to see what my iron levels look like.
Wednesday's run was not the most awesome time I've ever had, I wouldn't call it bad exactly, but some technical difficulties made the evening noticeably more challenging than usual.
I had a couple of loose goals in mind when I set out and I was surprised to find at the end that I managed to hit them!
I can't think of anyone but Patton Oswalt when I see this kid.
Now that I've finished C25k I don't have any specific goal with running in mind beyond "not kill or embarrass myself overmuch at the upcoming Freaky5K". I am not looking to torture myself particularly and I'm nowhere near what one might consider "competitive" physical condition, so my main aim at this point is to find the point where things are challenging rather than punishing, and to start pushing that point back as far and often as I reasonably can.
I'd like to start doing that with heart rate training, but clearly my calculated heart rate is not appropriate for me or I would be pretty much keeling over from exhaustion every time I run. According to my Garmin I'm consistently averaging just about 100% of my max calculated HR, which should mean I'm completely 100% exhausting myself at the top edge of my output... for 35 minutes at a time? Don't think so.
A max HR test pretty much involves repeatedly pushing yourself as hard as you can and recording the highest HR. Doing that on a grumpy ankle is probably not the best plan, so a more personalized measurement is going to have to wait for happier joints. I figure hill work will probably be a good way to work that out.
The Good:
I decided that my main run goal for Wednesday was to keep as close to 12:00/mile as I could. Since my average pace was apparently 11:55 I appear to have rather soundly nailed that one. My secondary goal was to see if I could get negative splits again, or at least not terribly positive ones (since I was trying to hit a specific overall pace I wasn't too overly concerned about that) and very much to my surprise I managed that too! I averaged 12:08, 12:06, 11:45, and 9:40 (respectively) for each "lap" of the 3.1 miles (broken up by mile).
I can feel that I'm getting more consistent with my breathing and making a point to count footfalls during each breath not only does a LOT toward keeping me aware of how I'm pacing myself but it also satisfies a bit of my minor OCD tendencies. This provides an awfully handy mental distraction from the less pleasant things my body is telling me about what it feels like to breathe that intensely for that long
The Bad:
My attempt to solve the wandering belt problem backfired on me in a couple of ways. I tried out an active Old Navy bra core tank top I've had for a while so I could put the belt on over something smooth. The top is a bit overly long and fits everywhere but on my hips so it had a tendency to crawl up on me (especially when I first started running and it was a bit tighter everywhere), so I usually just go with a sports bra and a large trapeze shaped tank top. I have about five of these tops and I like that they are very open at the top, and loose enough to camouflage any muffin top and/or cans of mace I happen to have strapped to my hips.
I folded up the bottom of the active tank, fitted the belt to my waist, tossed on the rest of my usual gear, and went out. I was going pretty good until about 1.5 miles in, when I realized that there was a stinging pain occurring in the top of my left arm, right up by my armpit. I think the underarm area of the active tank to must come up higher and tighter than my usual bra and so my skin was squished out in what must have been an insanely sexy show of armpit cleavage, which was then rubbing against the flesh that was squishing out above my armband. I was approaching one of the higher traffic areas of my run so I had to wait it out until I was in a place safe enough to loosen my armband. I am noticing more of these little raw spots from various seams and buckles, so I suspect it's time to suck it up and cough over the cash for some Body Glide. Luckily I caught it before I really rubbed the skin off, but it's still a bit raw.
Once I started running the majority of my body was shockingly happy in the cool weather, but I apparently vent heat from the belly like a Care Bear because having something tight around my torso was driving me MAD. This tank (actually I have two, but that's not important right now) might be a good layering piece when it starts getting cold, but for now I'm going stick with my old setup and find another belt fix. At the very worst there's always safety pins.
This is a 100% accurate portrayal of my experience, note especially the expressions of horror.
The Ugly:
My ankle was doing pretty ok, but my left knee got pretty pissed and is still grumping especially on down staircases. It was never bad enough to stop me or change my stride, but I was awfully close a few times. I think I will switch back to wearing a brace for a while, though I'd like to see if a patella strap will do the job. I don't know if I was just under rested - but my legs were definitely tired and kind of fighting me the whole time and that is very unusual for me. Occasional joint tweaks aside my legs are typically among the the last things I notice while running.
Who knows, maybe keeping my pace more reasonable meant I felt "well" enough to notice more about what my legs have been feeling all along? Somehow I doubt it though.Whatever it was I came home and effectively shut down for a while, my brain is usually scrambled for a bit after running, but I think the only thing that kept me awake after my shower was a DIRE need to go to the laundromat and acquire foods (mmmm chicken bacon ranch pizza, I did NOT need to find out how tasty that stuff is). I know I say this constantly, but I really need to sleep more (says the woman typing the blog at one in the morning).
I wish this was a 100% accurate portrayal of the rest of my evening.
We will not even get into why I ended up getting out of bed at one in the morning yesterday to bathe a part of the kitten in the above picture (a good sense of smell can be both a blessing and a curse, and I'll leave it at that) ...and again at three in the morning to chase him away from my suddenly growling other cat, who was attempting to sleep behind my knees. It's a good thing he's both gorgeous and insanely affectionate.
******
My Wednesday run: a 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks.
Negative splits throughout
3.1 miles at an average of 11:55 per mile - total time of 37.02 max pace of 8:34
Oh wait, never mind. I can smell it from here. I have always had a ridiculous sense of smell but I feel like it goes through the roof when I run. After the last couple of months of running in the same neighborhood I now know who barbecues a lot, whose dog likes to pee on the fence near the road, who is messy when they top off their gas tank, and which cars belong to Jersey Shore wannabees. Here's a hint, if I can taste you after you drive by for even longer than I can hear your "sweet kicking bass" it's time to back away from the axe body spray. You are going to suffocate an entire poor unsuspecting night club full of people.
Today I ran a new route and encountered the most ambrosial Indian food smell imaginable, it permeated something like a half a block radius so it had clearly been simmering for some time and my already normally ravenous post run appetite became like a small gnawing thing in my innards. Luckily my boyfriend likes to cook and can always be convinced to eat, so I "talked him into" throwing together a bit of prepackaged Trader Joe's Indian food with some chick peas for a late dinner. It wasn't the insane deliciousness that I craved, but it still quieted the belly monster.
Running past food smells usually gets me salivating (especially barbecue steak), but this was inspirationally delicious. I actually found myself fantasizing that I would get fast enough to run into the house and get away with some of that delicious food.
I'd feel terrible about abusing the talent of a cook such as that, but I'm sure it would be righteously delicious until my conscience kicked in.
****** As you may have noticed I have not started any manner of "October Blogging Challenge". I enjoyed some aspects of doing the September one, but at this point in the game I already have enough to talk about without forcing topics and I go to bed late enough as it is: I really didn't need the extra time sink or word count.
I would love to figure out some sort of consistent weekly topic post though. I'm picturing something like the ubiquitous Wordless Wednesday posts so if anyone has seen anything neat in that vein or has any ideas I'm all for it.
I will say that given the relative popularity of the Jason Statham post and my appreciation of the majesty of the male form I would not be averse to something like Running Off The Reese's beefcaketastic Magnificent Men of Monday posts. ****** My run today: a 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks
3.10 miles at an average of 11:59 per mile - total time of 37:07
I'm still having a lot of problems with mile two. I think it may be a mental limitation due to no longer feeling "fresh" but not yet being "almost there". I tend to find myself pushing to a faster pace than I'd like and then having to slow down. I'm not really sure how to get out of that head space though.
My ankle is stiff when I walk but was surprisingly fine when I ran. I did manage to get a good stretch before the run today and I do feel like I loosened it up quite a bit. I was aware of it but at no point was I in pain.
I have a physical with a new doctor in a week and a half and I will mention it then if it is still bothering me. The missing referral issue I mentioned in my last post cascaded into a phone argument with my (former) Doctor's office manager so ridiculous I was literally shaking with anger when I finally hung up.
So yeah, new doctor time. It will be nice to be able to tell them I am active though!
Apparently calling me on the phone with bad news while I'm running makes me insanely rude. I eventually apologized, but still that was surprising. I am normally extremely patient on the phone. Today's run was expected to be chaotic because I had an ophthalmologist appointment later in the evening with not enough time to go home, so I ended up packing my gear the night before and heading to my old neighborhood to run right after work. I changed clothes at work but I still felt like a bug under glass gearing up in my car in front of a random house on the side of the road. Warmup stretching was truncated (yoga floor poses and littered asphalt don't mix well) and I was a bit worried about my ankle, which was still stiff.
I was just getting into the swing of things and starting to feel my ankle loosen when I got a call which I pushed into voice-mail. This was about five minutes in to my run and on a main road so I waited a bit to listen to it. It was the Ophthalmologist's office telling me there were some problems with my referral and to call back with my insurance card handy. My card was locked in my car so I figured I'd call when I was done. I was annoyed to be sure, but motoring through.
Twenty five minutes in I get another call from the Drs office which I answered since I recognized the number by this point. Apparently she said "hello, can you hear me???" one too many times because I eventually blasted her with:
I'M RUNNING AND ON A CELL PHONE. STOP SAYING HELLO.
I CAN HEAR YOU. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM???!?!?
Short answer was that my GP apparently never set up my referral so all of that oddness and pre-planning was completely pointless. I could have had a nice run in my own neighborhood, a shower right away, and been settled in by sunset for some quality cat snuggle time. I responded with a string of bad words, but this is about where I started apologizing for shooting the messenger as she was being very sweet and the general problem wasn't her fault at all.
I could most assuredly have handled it better and I think I may have flustered her a bit with my reaction and language; but to be fair she was being quite dense.
"So... uh... I guess you'd like to reschedule then?"
No, I'll just go sit in your waiting room for a few hours, I will be there in an hour as originally discussed. Charge me accordingly please, YES I WOULD LIKE TO RESCHEDULE, CAN I DO THIS AND GET BACK TO RUNNING NOW????
I paused my devices and walked during the exchange and actually ended up back at my car by the time the conversation was done. I decided that with just under two miles under my belt I might as well finish.
At this point my mood was just plain foul and I had lost track of my original route so I was just sort of meandering through the nearby roads trying not to get too far from my car. I also felt like I was just on the edge of having something cramp a number of times and I'm taking that as a sign that I REALLY need to stop skimping on warmup and cooldown.
I finished though, and by the time I was back in my car and headed home I had burned through the worst of the grump but I can feel the effects of running all tight and distracted in that mode and I expect to be sore tomorrow.
Regardless: I'm glad I made the arrangements to run today despite my appointment and I'm proud of myself for sticking to it and finishing even after things went a bit pear shaped.
****** 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks 3.11 miles at an average of 12:22 per mile - total time of 38:29
I'm trying to decide how I want to move forward at his point and I may switch to doing somewhat shorter but more numerous runs. I'm thinking something like three, one and a half to two mile runs across the week and one 5k during the weekend when I can do it earlier. Nothing definite, but it's food for thought anyway.
I surprised myself in both positive and negative ways today, have you ever had an experience like that?
I'm always on the lookout for new blogs and while I'm still on the fence about VanessaRuns overall, I did find this really striking:
I actually believe that there is NO good reason for running 100 miles. But I also believe that I don’t need one.
I love the distance. I love training for and running 100s. And that is enough. I don’t need to lose weight from it and I don’t need to earn money from it. I just need to run.
We live in a world now where everything requires a purpose and an explanation, otherwise it’s useless. Exercise must have a direct benefit in order to be worth our time. Not surprisingly, we are more sickly and sedentary than ever
Instead of going outside, we sit around and reason that there is not enough of a physical or financial benefit in ultra running. But I believe ultra running is more of an art, not a job. Nobody asks:
Why we go to a ballet
Why we listen to an orchestra
Why we visit art galleries
Why we appreciate music
Or for that matter:
Why go to a movie on opening night?
Why watch a sunrise?
Why pet a puppy?
There is no logic or reason behind these things, but they feed our souls. They make us human.
And ultra running makes me human. It’s the one thing I don’t need to explain. And I don’t think I should be asked.
There's more to her post and I do believe it's worth reading. I've done some pretty whacked out things in my life for no reason beyond "because I want to" or "because it's the right thing for me right now" so I'm feeling a lot of resonance with her words.
Why am I running?
Well I enjoy that I'm getting fit, but given my initial knee woes there are other ways to get fit that would probably have made more sense. I enjoy that I'm getting out of my cave but I could just as easily go fly kites or go fishing for several hours a week. I like the community but there's a whole lot of bars or knitting blogs and gathers to be found (not that I bar hop, kite, fish, or knit, but whatever).
As I mentioned in yesterday's post I haven't always picked the things that make "the most sense" for me to focus on. Relying on the power of logical motivations has not always been the strongest source of personal drive for me (says the ex-smoker). Then again if we always had that kind of discipline we'd be living highly structured lives in a Brave New World style dystopia and research psychologists would be really bored.
I am running because I want to run.
Ultimately that is the solitary thing that has made the difference between doing it and not doing it. How many times do we say that we want to do something that we think will be positive (losing weight, quitting smoking, joining that book club) but all the logic and reasoning in the world means bupkis until you actually make that decision. Was there any reason not to make the decision earlier? Probably not really, except that you just didn't.
Though I will say that anyone who doesn't understand the logic or reason behind petting a puppy apparently has a different understanding of what the word "puppy" means than I do.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-Bernard Baruch (frequently miss-attributed to Dr Seuss)
******
Randomly: I got my first friction burn yesterday! The belt I use to hold my house key (and mace) rode up to my waist and as I ran it rubbed a nickel sized spot on my mid back raw. I felt it stinging in the shower but couldn't see it until today because a) I'm rather blind (especially behind me) and b) it is on a tattoo.
While flexibility has probably always been my main focus, I think the thing I'd most like to improve on at the moment is my endurance.
I do find this to be a pretty funny juxtaposition with the rest of my post above but I guess if I like doing something raising my endurance means I can do it more!
A bit of administrative monkeying today, I have a cleaner shinier new look and a nifty Daily Mile widget there on the right side.
I don't know why my mileage is wrong, apparently I am not allowed to have a fitness-based social network work for me the right way. This is the fourth one where I have had to open some sort of help ticket. I have an email in to support so hopefully they'll find my other 25 or so miles somewhere along the line. I am listed under Jogging Jawa on DailyMile so feel free to find me there!
September Blog Challenge Day 25 What is something that you do well? This one actually got me thinking for a bit. I am a collector of hobbies and tend to get to a pretty decent point at most things I do so there's a number of things I could mention. I think I will take a wider view however and say that something that I do well is focus. When I set my sights on something it pretty much happens. I research it, I practice it, I do it, it gets done. End of story. The problem is that I don't seem to get to choose what it is that catches my attention. As much as I would like to turn my Eye Of Sauron-like focus to things like making more money, going back to school, or having amazing yogini shoulders; more often than not I get caught up in the minutia of 16th century embroidery or finding the best tools for foam decorator pumpkin carving.
I am REALLY happy that my current focus is running and that I am doing so well with it, but I must admit I am somewhat fearful of what happens when the bubble bursts. I hope that it is established as enough of a habit that is is simply a regular part of my life when the next shiny thing comes along. ****** On a bizarrely related note: I knew that a healthier fitter lifestyle would change my life for the
better and give me the ability to do things stronger, faster, and better
overall, but I did not expect that to extend to my liquid chugging abilities. I'm not the biggest fan of water or
drinking liquids in general. It will take me HOURS to down one cup of
coffee, and I LIKE coffee. In order to actually get water into me in
something resembling a reasonable time frame I have started downing it in one shot like cough medication.
Usually my limit is 8 oz at a time but I appear to have leveled up recently. I
got up super late Sunday and had a lazy breakfast (to put it lightly)
so
to make sure I was set up to run later in the day I ended up chugging
all of the water I would normally have had over the course of the
morning. Below is my 24 oz water bottle with 8 oz and time markings.
Where the "magic" happens
I drank all of the missing water in one shot! I'm not sure what my new-found abilities will bring, but I like to think it's a result of my body getting better at using oxygen so I can hold my breath for longer.
Seems legit, right? ******* My run today: entirely self directed! 3.13 miles at an average of 11:43 per mile Today was my fastest 5k at 35:27 I did not count warm up and cool down in my stats at all (about a mile between the two) and hit my goal of running straight through for a full 5k for the first time! A slight side stitch throughout made breathing a bit hard and my second mile was mentally the hardest but I'm not sure why. This was about five minutes more running than I have done in one stretch before so I expect to feel this tomorrow.
Once again I thank whatever is responsible for my continuing ankle strength as by all rights I should have twisted my left ankle rather badly on a large flat rock about 1.5 miles in.
My run today: C25K week 9 day 3 - LAST ONE - BOO YA I MADE IT!!!!
3.43 miles at 11:39 per mile.
Per Nike today was (again) my fastest 5k so far at 36:00 (including about 5 minutes of walk time during warmup) and my fastest 1K so far at 6'40"
I managed to get the Garmin working how I wanted this time and only recorded the time that I was actually running.
My actual run was 2.71 miles in 30:06 minutes with an average pace of 11:06, a best pace of 5:38, and an average HR of 184 bpm
I was going to get myself this Bondi Band in celebration, but my boyfriend is getting it for me instead. We consider our mutual love of Batman to be the catalyst of our relationship, so what more fitting reward?
Na na na na na na na na HEADBAND!
Cheaper than a dinner out and way more helpful in the long run.
I was mildly disappointed in the Couch to 5K app for ending with pretty much no fanfare whatsoever. They can take the time to add in the "Halfway done"s "Almost there"s and "Just keep going!"s but they can't add in a final "You did it!"???
I know finishing the C25K program "should" be reward enough, but I was really hoping for some flying Kremlin type action.
Why yes, I do REALLY like Tetris.
My next run will be an attempt to actually RUN for a full 5K. We'll see how that goes! ****** Signed up for the Great Pumpkin Race Virtual 5k/10k run which benefits the The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training via RunningInSanity. That will be on or about October 13th. I appear to have missed out on the option to get the orange and white polka dot Bondi Band along with my medal but hopefully she'll get some more.
Ugh. Even reading this question is depressing. I REALLY do not do well with less then 7 or 8 hours a night, yet I am an extremely nocturnal person with an 8 to 4 job.
It is a continuing problem.
I can be pretty functional on six hours a night, not happy but functional; five hours is my dead minimum. Anything less means I end up so tired I have to slap myself every couple of minutes in the car in order to
get to work alive, and spent the majority of the morning wanting to
vomit all over my desk. If I try to balance things out with coffee you can add a healthy splash generalized anxiety in to that mix.
(Photo: Jupiterimages)
Given that my alarm is set for seven am on weekdays that means functional Jawa bedtime is officially one am. What I find is that I naturally want to hit the sack approximately 1:30 to 2:30 in the morning (later if I'm in the middle of a project); so keeping my own hours is a no-no.
Luckily(?) I'm usually sleep-depped enough that when I go down I go down HARD, so insomnia is NOT an issue.
I do however do my best to make things up on the weekend and will do whatever I can to get a minimum of eight hours of sleep, but as I am still nocturnal that often means my day doesn't even start until well after noon.
Celebrated my LAST WEEK OF C25K (holy crap!) by trying out my New(used) Garmin Forerunner 305 for the first time today and it was pretty snazzy! I bought it off of The Cheerleader after she decided to upgrade so I don't have the heart rate strap in hand yet (it's hiding), but I think I have more than enough stuff to look at for the moment anyway.
I spent about half of last night trying to get used to picking through the menus and confusing myself about all sorts of things, until finally I was so out of sorts I just stopped altogether and loaded up this highly soothing picture of a baby spotted skunk to reset the switches on my brainmeats.
Ridiculously soothing image shamelessly yoinked from Cute Overload
Having restored my brain to functionality (yes, for real, beats taking a cigarette break) I was able to sit down, read through the manual, and actually learn things sufficient to finish setup instead of just button clicking myself into a confused tizzy. I literally spent the entire evening poking at it in some way or another last night and I still barely feel like I have the slightest handle on what I can do with it. It was definitely overwhelming at first, but once I calmed down I could see that as a sign that I will be able to grow into this thing for a long time to come.
I was very surprised at how quickly I got used to wearing it, and I didn't pay much attention to it at all as I was running. Though it may help that I very commonly wear large bracelets on my left wrist (wearing them on the right interferes with computer use too much). It may also help that we were amping up to tornado conditions and watching for flying tree limbs and kicked up road debris was a more immediate issue.
I looked at my pace a couple of times and noted the degree of synchronicity between the audible mile markers given by Nike and those given by the watch (not dead on, but close). It did also occur to me that I now had an even BIGGER chunk of change strapped to my left arm and it may be worth obscuring some of that if I can. I might have looked at the watch more toward the end of the run but my phone decided to keep pausing my music and turning on voice control for no apparent reason (I think because I had baggied it in my armband to protect from rain). It's has however been awfully cool poking at the various graphs and metrics now that I'm back home. I feel a little lost in this glut of info, but I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun with it in the long run.
The main setting I'm trying to decide on at the moment is whether I want to set it to ignore any time spent moving slower than a certain pace so that my warm up and cool down time isn't affecting my overall pace. One the one hand since my goal as of next week is to start running for the entire 5K and see what kind of time I can do it in that will be handy, but by the same token they don't pause the race when you take a walk break on race days. I will have the phone for backup though.
I will say that I feel Garmin (and MapMyRun now that I'm mentioning it) have made a SERIOUS oversight in how they share info on their social sites. I do not mind at all sharing the nitty-gritty details of Who What When Why and How, but people really do NOT need to know about the Where. Both Nike+ and Active have the ability to turn on or off sharing options for maps and I feel this is an essential safety feature. I plan to contact both sites about this issue.
Do you run with technological assistance?
What are your favorite and least favorite features?
Would you set a minimum speed for readings if you had the option?
I feel that pretty much all advertising is based on manipulation and exploitation in some way or another, advertising exploits people. Full stop. I don't think that this manipulates fat people any more than typical Nike ads exploit fit people (as products or consumers).
They're using an actor with a specific look to sell a product, just like any other advertisement, but it is an unusual take given our culture's obsession with appearance. I do applaud their willingness to take a chance on a different look and a different method, and to use a more broadly uplifting narrative rather than a generally unattainable one, but in the end never forget they're still still hawking a product.
That being said, whether it's exploitative or not (it is) I do feel that the message that it is sending about determination and will is still both positive and more generally accessible and that is worth keeping out there.
******
My run today: C25K week 9 day 1 (holy crap again!)
3.13 miles at 12:47 per mile. (full workout per Garmin 3.48 miles at 13:16 per mile - I planned a longer route and walked the remaining 0.35 miles)
Added bonus info (since I feel I can trust the Garmin more than the phone) -
Top pace 7:03 !!!
Average pace of the splits where I was actually running 12:26
A bit harder to keep pace today but I'm finding my breathing is getting MUCH easier. My phone kept spazzing toward the end of the run and pausing my music to turn on voice control (I think it was due to being in a ziplock baggie IN my armband) so I was pretty distracted. New water bottle worked very well on most counts but I may have to drill an air valve in it as I get VERY little water in each pull.
I didn't have enough to go all out at the end (I lie, I had it but I didn't commit it), but I did commit enough to pick my speed up considerably for the last minute and a half and finish at a strong pace.
What is Poi? -
'Poi' is the Maori word for 'ball' on a cord. Poi is a form of juggling
where the balls are swung around the body. Poi can take many shapes and
forms from LED lighted, Glow, Fabric, Sock and Fire.
I practiced incessantly for a year before I ever lit up and it gave me the sexiest shoulders I have ever had in my life. I also gained a great deal of agility, balance, and grace (not to say I'm the most graceful person ever, but I used to be among the least). Poi forced me to exercise muscles in my left wrist that I had allowed to atrophy significantly due to a long bout of tendonitis (I was stupid and never went to PT) and gave me amazing upper body flexibility.
I performed en fuego as many times as I could and it NEVER got old. It was fun, beautiful, and intensely special to me. While I don't think I've swung a set of poi (or flags or a staff) in three or four years at least and the burn scars are all faded, it still remains one of the activities that I am happiest to be able to say that I have done.
I will however say that I'm also pretty freaking jazzed about...
******
My run today: C25K week 8 day 2
3.12 miles at 12:09 per mile.
and 3.1 miles just happens to equal...
Eff Yeah!
My legs felt great but man were my lungs tired!! Slight side stitch at 1.5 miles but I managed to slow down enough to get rid of it. All of the effort and discomfort I am experiencing at this point is happening above my waistline. Having water is helping immensely but I need to find a better bottle before I knock a tooth out. I still had enough at the end to let out with a full out run for the last 30 seconds of the run portion and I would have run for longer if I had looked at the time earlier.
Currently between warmup and cool down I'm walking about half a mile of my course, so I will be increasing my course so that I am covering a full 5K in addition to the warm up/cool down (about 3.6mi all told probably).
And since I'm only about a week away from finishing... my goal for my first few runs after C25K is to figure out what pace I can reasonably run without walk breaks for an entire 5K.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful dog which looked remarkably like the one below, except with no leash, no owner in sight, and chasing after me on a busy street about twelve minutes into my run. Based on size I'm guessing it was a female.
I stopped to address the dog because I was pretty sure she was about to take a chunk out of my calf out of sheer exuberance for the
chase. I also felt a bit like I was going to vomit becuase I couldn't
breathe, so that was some handy timing!
Red Siberian Husky - very pretty when it's not about to hamstring you
While I know you're not "supposed" to approach strange dogs she did have visible tags and I am a total sucker for stray animals (not the first time I've done it this summer, or even sort of technically this *week* now that I think about it). I attempted to read the tag and sadly while she had no problem approaching me in a friendly manner she was having none of me grabbing near her collar and warned me off in no uncertain terms. Shortly after this she took off in the other direction after a SUV.
Once I was sure she was a couple of blocks away I resumed my run,
(though I did take a moment to chat with another jogger that had been
dodging her) and then once I returned home I spent about forty five
minutes trying to find a phone line to report the dog for pickup. To top it all off
the "report a lost or found dog" number I kept getting referred to is out of service so all I can do
is spread the word via social networks, keep an eye out while I'm
driving around, and hope for the best.
Technically one of
the reasons I'm carrying pepper spray is in case I am attacked by a dog,
but I honestly don't know if I could use it (not on a dog anyway, all bets are off for
two legged predators).
Could be worse, could be this guy!
Team Jeep cyclist Evan Van Der Spuy meets an antelope, the hard way
Have you ever had a wildlife encounter? Story of my life. I'm actually considering a wildlife rehabilitation license but couldn't do something like that in my current place. I am that crazy woman on the side of the road about to get hit by traffic over a possum. One of my most cherished early memories of my father was watching him brave traffic to get a pigeon with a broken neck out of the middle of the road. It died in his hands moments later but he said he just couldn't let it die in the road like that.
Compassion like that leaves its mark.
Do you believe in "best left alone" or are you willing to risk the stitches and rabies shots in rescue scenarios? I have clearly come to terms with the fact that I am going to end up with rabies one of these days.
I used to log my eating with the Lose It iPhone app. I would lose the weight and re-balance my portion sizes over time, but I was just paying attention to caloric intake and there was clearly something lacking.
I wasn't doing much in the way of exercise and I found I wasn't getting near enough protein. There are only so many times you can start drooling when someone walks past with a microwave lunch before you realize that there is a problem with the balance of your diet.
I went back and forth with that several times over the last few years and considered starting it back up when I started doing C25K, but I decided instead to tackle one thing at a time and focus on exercise. When you compare the caloric loss from a two mile run to the caloric gain from a bag of Doritos you get really depressed, or at at least I do, so instead I put my focus on gaining health and muscle.
I have lost about five pounds since I started, but more importantly I've lost a LOT of the excess squish I was starting to accumulate and regained a good portion of my wardrobe. My clothes are fitting as if I was ten or fifteen pounds lighter and I no longer need to check to see if a shirt is too tight across my muffin top! My legs are starting to look really nice and I'm almost at the point where I feel I can wear my goal garment (more on that later).
Added bonus: I have found that I'm naturally paying more attention to what I'm eating as a function of fueling my body, and because I'm eating better stuff overall I am not stressing my indulgences. I have a cheese problem, and by that I mean I'm seriously nearly a cheesatarian. So good!
I am so happy to be able to eat it again like I want to.
I track my running simultaneously with the Active Trainer Couch to 5k app and the Nike+ app. I lost some data when I restarted C25K, so I now also back up the basic info (time, distance, notes etc) for both programs in an excel sheet.
Best moment of the run; a gaggle of pre-teens on bikes passed me when I
was about 2 miles in and one boy yelled out "Woman! What are you, crazy???" and kept going.
I had social plans for later in the evening so I decided before I went out not to do the full 5K tonight and just stick to the C25K workout. This was a really good idea as trying to report the dog took up the majority of my post run free time and I was late to my evening plans. I also had a VERY hard time keeping going today. My legs were fine but my lungs were having none of it and I had a small side stitch for part of the run (this went away during the dog encounter).
I took one of those really flimsy 16oz bottled waters and drank half of it before I left. I squeezed the air out of the other half and shoved it in my belt. It stayed quite well and I was very glad to have the water during cool-down, though I would like to find one with a squeeze top so I could have some while running too. Eventually I'll get one of those belt thingys with the water bottles, but I am making do for the moment as I have some serious expenses to address in the near future and need to put a cork in the running-related cash hemorrhaging.
I am rapidly learning that I am not very good at keeping to a
reasonable pace, even when I am feeling overextended. I may have to put
together a specifically down-tempo running mix to keep me to a pace my
body can handle.
